Page 5: Captured

"Huh? What happened?"

"Oho, so you woke up huh? How are you feeling?"

Ah Mu slowly opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was the face of a familiar well built man. Due to the the slight disorientation, he still haven't understood about his situation. Feeling the unfamiliar surroundings, instinct immediately kicked in to pull out his sword however his palm felt no pouch from his side. It was gone, all of his equipment and some resources were gone. Slowly understanding his situation, he tried to move back away from the boulder mountain sect disciple but was blocked by the wall behind him.

"What's going on? Where's brother Ling Tian?"

AH Mu was in a bit of panic when his head experienced a headache. He remembered that he was caught together with Ling Tian by a strong cultivator. The last thing he remembered was that they were together with Ling Tian sneaking up on a group of miners, followed them on a mining site, and the next thing was that they were knocked by someone from behind.

"Brother Ah Mu, I'm here. Calm down."

Ah Mu looked at the direction of the sound and saw Ling Tian heavily beaten up. His clothes was ripped and some parts were still bleeding a bit. On his neck was a metal band similar to the other ones inside. He rushed immediately to his side and tried to check on his status.

"Brother Ling Tian, are you fine? What happened?"

"I'm good. These are just some superficial wounds. The man who brought us here was really strong. I was was suppressed by his strong cultivation. I tried to fight but my current cultivation was too low against that officer."

"Why didn't you run? I know you are quicker than me. You could have escaped if you just run."

"Silly, as if I can leave you just like that. At least that time, I thought it was good to hide our movement skill but with our current situation, we're useless. Our only hope is if one of our companions will notice our absence and look for us."

"What do you mean bro, we can just break these locks and scoot! Easy!"

"STUPID!"

On the sides, another man interjected. Judging from his appearance, it was another member of the boulder sect which Ah Mu recognized.

"Huh? Who said that! Huh? You're the one that was palm smacked by brother Long Bai during the exhibition right?"

Ah Mu was pertaining to the young member of the boulder mountain sect that challenged Long Bai during the exhibition. Because this man was desperate in winning, he purposely chose an alchemist thinking that he will have an easy time. Contrary to his expectation, he was flung outside of the ring instead by a single slap after announcing that he would give Long Bai a free attempt to hit him.

The man that interjected couldn't speak and resumed laying down from embarrassment.

"Brother Ah Mu, it is not as easy as you think. If you forcefully break this metal lock, the seal in it will be triggered and explode. The explosive power is enough to grind the body of someone who's at the body refining stage."

When Ah Mu calmed down, Ling Tian explained their situation slowly for him to easily digest the situation. With the additional information from the other captives, things were easily understood. The leader of the boulder mountain sect even fill them with the information he got from the other workers in there.

"Since we are all from the same union, I'll fill you ip with the information we were able to gather. First, this place is a mine, specifically a fire stone mine. The fire stones here is the main product of this province. This is not just the only mining area but this province have multiple areas. This is the newest they have located and since it is new, they sent new slaves to work here. That's us.

Second, the slave collar. This is a metal collar that is imbued with complicated inscriptions. Just like he said a while ago, this will explode if you forcefully break it. I have seen it personally when one of ours tried breaking it. His head turned into a mass of red ground meat after the explosion.

Third, escape is also impossible unless we would be able to remove these collars. The guards out there and in here are at least at the initial layer of the soul tempering stage.

Fourth, in order to survive in here, you need to gather the set quota of fire stones everyday in order to have something to eat. If you will be able to double the amount, they can give you double the amount of food.

Those are the things that you should at least know."

"Now that we are acquainted, how about we introduce ourselves first? We are on the same boat so we at least should know each other's name. Let me start. I'm Ling Tian and this is Ah Mu. We both came from the six star school."

The two groups specially the three became well more acquainted with each other. Aside from the discussions earlier, the group even talked about the events that happened during the exhibition matches.

"By the way, you can just call me Shoushan. Just like you've heard, I'm the leader of my team with a cultivation level of the Bone tempering layer at the 8th level. During the exhibition match back at the Cup Island, I was really in awe of your team. You are not yet in your teens and there you were fighting toe to toe with those arrogant and pampered young masters from the other sects. Especially the fighting style you two both posses, it was just marvelous. Did they really teach that in your sect?"

"Brother Shoushan, the technique we are using was taught by another person, not the sect. But say, during the last match, why did you chose brother Bai as an opponent?

"Ah, yes. I remembered, that's his name. I was the first to go and last at the ring but I did not went like how it did at the first fight. If there's anything, I am glad I had that fight. You see, before that fight, I was supposed to challenge Lady Yue but then I felt something different about him when he fought the member from our team. As disciples from the boulder mountain sect, we take pride in our strong body. Our trainings can't just be compared with ordinary regimen which makes us more sturdy and more stronger than anyone at our level. However he was different. To send someone from our sect with a slap outside the ring, this could just mean that the person who did it was extraordinary strong. I didn't feel how ot really was until I challenged him. Standing face to face with him during a fight was like facing a tiger in a sheep's skin. His face and physique was simple and relaxed while his aura was terrifying. When I tried blocking his first strike, The muscles on my body contracted to the extreme to enhance my defence however after successfully doing so, I almost fell from weakness. If he continued landing that second punch, I believe that I could have suffered from broken bones and ruptured organs. I can just say that he was on a different level. I feel like the only ones who can stop him were the elders and the sect leaders."

"Wow, that's some deep admiration you have there! However I can't deny that we have also felt that chasm that marks the difference between me and him. Did you know that we even tried doing sparring sessions where the three of us, with sister Yue, tried to outmatch him but we still ended up failing? That's how we measure our gap. My wish at first was to at least catch up to him but now I will just be satisfied if I can cut a strand of his hair."

"Haha! This just makes me more motivated to become stronger. My master was right through and through that there's always someone out there who's stronger than you even if you're a monarch or a god."

"But your motivation is wasted if we can't get out of here. Do you have plans brother Ling Tian? How about brother Shoushan?

"So far, we can only wait for any thing that we can use as opportunity. Our problem is that we can't use our essence but we still have our body strength. Let is find where we can use this as an advantage as we go on. For now, we observe and wait."

.

.

On a camping ground near the mining area, an officer was checking on the things they confiscated from their captives. In that tent, a low rank officer was doing the job while the other was sitting admiring the weapons displayed on the table.

"Corporal Mountain, I'm done checking the others. There's nothing interesting about the other things. What should I do with the other things?"

"What do we have there?"

"Corporal, besides these weapons, there are these pouches that look like a decorative charm, there's also these armors taken from those guys with big builds."

"Just leave the weapons and armors here. Those charm pouches, you may return them back. It must be something they use as good luck charm. It wouldn't be bad if they'll at least have something that will motivate them while they're still here. You may now go."

"Yes Corporal Mountain!"

"Private Ryan, don't be discouraged. You may have another chance in the future. If I will get a promotion, I'll recommend you to take my place here in the future."

"Thank you sir! I'll sure work hard!"

Private Ryan exited the huge tent while clutching the pouches on his right hand. Remembering the event that happened at the former mine, he can't stop becoming emotional since it was supposed to be his promotion job. Such tragedy was unprecedented causing him to fall into anxiety. If his family learns of it, they might not feel good about it too so he decided not to inform them yet about his case.

As he returned to the cells that were installed inside the mouth of the mine, he just tossed the pouches back into the cell without speaking and left immediately. The ones who own those pouches were literally speechless of what happened.

"Brother Ling Tian, that's our cosmic pouch isn't it? Why did they return it? Is this a sham?"

"They must must have taken what's inside it that's why they see no value in it. Let's still take it. This pouch was given by our master so we should still keep it. Brother Shoushan, the other one is yours right?"

"Ah yes, thanks. Although they returned this, we can't still use it since we cannot utilize our essence. (sigh)

If only we can check the contents if it. I hope they did not took my love letter in here."

The three owners of the pouch were a bit grateful but the depressive atmosphere hasn't dispersed yet due to the feelings they have thinking that their precious items were taken. Little did they know that in this world where they came in, the idea of a spatial ring or a cosmic pouch is not well known or at least was not spread out. Not only that, space and void laws won't be perceived in this world due to the lack of hravenly essence. Only the high ranking officials, would know about this. Since the world was sealed, the civilization grew with mostly the knowledge of their ancestors who can't reach higher cultivation like them. In addition, the limiting factor of this world prevented them to discover high grade spells and techniques. The limited spatial objects were only exclusive to those prominent positions, thanks to the previous visitors who had a good diolomatic encounter with them. The highest grade that may be possibly created in this world are grade 5 pills, arrays, weapons and armors at most which coincides with the cultivation level cap.

Although the cosmic pouches were return to them, it really did serve only as a charm for them since they couldn't access it. Only in the future will they know that everything they have was still there and nothing was taken.